The present invention relates to a bill escrow and return device for use in combination with a bill acceptor for a vending machine.
In the past vending machines have typically been operated by the use of one or a plurality of coins. However, more recently, vending machines have been equipped with bill acceptors for accepting paper money as well. With the increased use of bill acceptors in the vending industry and increased prices of items being vended, it becomes necessary to provide for the return of multiple customer inserted bills when the customer changes his mind about a bend before buying a product. In order to provide for the return of bills after they have been inserted into the vending device, it is necessary to utilize an escrow function. U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,081 discloses a bill accepting device which includes a bill discriminating section and an escrow section capable of retaining a bill accepted by the bill discrimination section and returning the retained bill. U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,413 discloses a multiple bill escrow and storage apparatus. In operation, a bill passes through a bill validator and into an escrow box. If the bills are to be returned, the escrow box is reciprocated from a handling station to an ejection station and a separate ejection device is disposed at the ejection station for ejecting the bill contained in the escrow box.